Please don't kill me!
Sudanese opposition leader Sadiq al-Mahdi, beating up demonstrators, an Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent said.
Mahdi, an ex-premier who heads the opposition Umma Party, was tossed in the calaboose
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
on May 17 for alleged treason after he reportedly accused a counter-insurgency unit, the Rapid Support Forces, of rape and other abuses of civilians in the Darfur region of western Sudan.
Hundreds of youths after weekly Moslem prayers emerged from a mosque in Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city, chanting slogans of support for Mahdi and calling for the fall of the government.
"Sadiq's voice is the voice of the people," and "The people demand the fall of the regime," they chanted, while also blocking off a main road in the city.
Anti-riot police equipped with sticks and clubs gave chase, beating them up and forcing them to flee to side streets, the correspondent said.
The protesters held up banners reading: "No to dialogue with the evil ones."
It was a reference to talks with the ruling National Congress and other parties launched by President Omar al-Bashir
Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to
ArabizeDarfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
to try to resolve multiple crises gripping impoverished and war-torn Sudan.
Mahdi's Umma party has pulled out of the talks following his arrest.
He is charged with treason-related offenses and could face a possible death sentence if convicted.